THE IDEA of attempting Cerro Murallón came to us way back in 2010, even before my first trip to Patagonia. Matteo “Berna” Bernasconi and I both were looking for a big adventure. We were not afraid of failing, just wanting to live the full Patagoni...
TIME STANDS STILL as the warm rays of the setting sun illuminate the surrounding ridgelines. As the lush meadows a thousand feet below gradually succumb to darkness, a south-facing fence of jagged High Sierra giants jets out of the earth, glowing ...
ONCE PLANTED in my head, Silvan’s project grew relentlessly in my thoughts, from a seed to a blossoming tree, shaded by strong moments of doubt, a clash between the desire to live fully and the need for self-preservation. What alpinist has not kno...
HALFWAY UP the ten-pitch headwall, at yet another hanging belay, Tony looked at me with a grin. “Normally I climb with someone first, you know, before venturing out on a big climb like this.” It’s true: We had never roped up before. I’m also...
OVER THE PAST couple of years, I’ve done a handful of ascents that various climbing luminaries have described as “cutting edge.” For those who don’t know me, it may seem these climbs were somewhat out of left field. But the truth is, I’ve been cli...
I STILL REMEMBER when I first saw the Asgard Jamming film. It was 2009, in Lecco, a presentation by Nico Favresse and Sean Villanueva. For me it was revolutionary: These guys were climbing in great style on an amazing wall in a beautiful and rem...
THE STRANGE THING about climbing new routes in China and Tibet is that once you’re lucky enough to complete a few successful expeditions you suddenly start receiving the Japanese Alpine News. One day it pops through the letterbox and then just kee...
On September 8, two men were climbing Shealyn’s Way (5.7), a sport route approximately 75 feet high. As the leader was lowering from the top, approximately 25 to 30 feet from the ground, the tail of the rope passed through the belayer’s device and...
Our original goal was to climb the north face of Lobuche West (6,145m). Joao Garcia and I approached up the Changri Nup Glacier from the village of Lobuche (ca 4,940m). Five hours of walking over difficult moraine took us to a base camp at 5,100...
Punchen Himal (6,049m, 28°39'40N, 85°08'48E) lies on the Nepal-Tibet border, 30km north of Ganesh I (7,422m). It had seen two known previous attempts. In 2007, a Japanese party led by Tamotsu Ohnishi followed the northwest ridge from its base, wit...
The At Bashi Range is particularly suitable for ski mountaineering and still has around 60 peaks above 4,000m that remain unclimbed. In 2016 our team explored the potential in the heart of the massif, which contains the highest peaks, and learned ...
In February 2016, just a few weeks after the presumed first ascent of Chon-tor (ca 4,180m) by Egor Suzdaltsov and Ivan Temerev from Russian Siberia (AAJ 2017), a new route was climbed on the northwest face of Chon-tor by the brothers Eugeny and Se...
Will and James started climbing Matthes Crest in the late morning on September 11. Both have spent decades climbing in the Sierra. (Their names have been changed here.) The day had started out with clear blue skies, and both climbers felt that the...
On November 13 a party of six scrambled to the summit of Mt. Haig, in the far southern Canadian Rockies, via the east ridge. At about 4 p.m., as the party was descending, one member of the group stumbled forward and at the same time lost her grip ...
On November 29, while leading the second pitch of Kemosabe (100 meters, WI4), a 35-year-old climber took a 40-meter fall from near the end of the pitch, pulling out two ice screws before his fall was arrested. The climber sustained life-threatenin...
An experienced party of two was climbing Forbidden Corner (5.9 R) on April 12 when the leader fell about 10 meters on the fourth or fifth pitch as a result of a broken hold. A piece of protection pulled out and lengthened the fall. As the belayer ...
At 3:40 p.m. on February 4, two ice climbers were descending the lower portion of the Aquarius ice climb (WI4). The first climber walked across a large ice ledge to the anchor at the top of the final rappel while his partner pulled the ropes from ...
A group of seven skiers was attempting the southern portion of the Great Divide ski traverse, which goes from the Columbia Icefields to Lake Louise. On May 4 they were using the standard bolted rappel route off the west glacier of the Mons Icefiel...
On February 21, a party was climbing Professor Falls on the slopes of Mt. Rundle and attempting to combine pitches in order to complete the route quickly. The leader, a very experienced climber in his 50s, climbed and protected the upper portion o...
OVER CHRISTMAS OF 2016, pictures of a large icefall strongly resembling a Christmas tree circulated on Wechat (a free messaging and calling app widely used throughout China). It took He Chuan and Liu Yang five days to determine the location of thi...